The primary objective of the Tulane ICIDR program is to develop and maintain an overseas station and a research program in Colombia, South America, headquartered in the city of Cali, which will address major public health problems of the neotropical region and the hemisphere and which will be of interest and importance to the scientific community throughout the world. Research is carried out as a collaborative effort between Colombian and American scientists on a broad interdisciplinary base and focus on parasitic diseases of man and their related immunological problems. A major research effort is directed toward basic biological and epidemiological investigations of selected vector-borne parasitic diseases of man especially filariasis and trypanosomiasis. Filariasis research focuses on the important species which infect man in the region namely, Wuchereria bancrofti, Onchocerca volvulus and Mansonella ozzardi with special emphasis placed on the biology and epidemiology of the parasites, their vectors and vector-parasite relationships and the immunological aspects of host parasite interactions. Parallel and comparative studies on mansonellosis are carried on also in the Republic of Haiti. Other research efforts are aimed at clarifying the importance and relationships of the zoonotic cycles of Trypanosoma cruzi to human Chagas disease in Colombia. The Colombian Fund for Research (COLCIENCIAS) is the Colombian host and counterpart organization of the Tulane program.